Hey fellow prog collectors
As a fan of Mr Sirius there still is one item I have never been able to locate. I'm wondering if someone out there in the ProgressiveEars community has access to or knows how to find this rare CD .... Mr Sirius "The Secret Treasures of Mr Sirius" from 2006 I think. Maybe it was a fan club release only?
Does anyone out there know about this disc?
Can honestly say I've not heard of this album prior. I thought I had everything by them, including the relatively obscure Sirius - Crystal Voyage CD. I'm now most curious...
Proggnosis has this information:
Track Listing
1. Gorge club premiere version (Mr.Sirius)
2. For My Friend (Miyoko Miyatake)
3. Sons of Sand (Mr.Sirius)
4. For My Sister (Kauzhiro Miyatake)
5. Sirius rust live (1980) the latter half
6. Snow Fairy (Sirius) Last Live
7. Crystal Voyage (Sirius) Last Live
Rate your music mentions it's a CD-R from indeed 2006.
According to Babyblaue this is one of the compilation-albums Kazuhiro Miyatake released of stuff by Sirius, his former band.
Good luck.
Saw this live boot recently for just thousand bucks (a bargain)
sirius.jpg
Maybe a different release of the same stuff on the official live bootleg? Years ago a friend sent me some 90m tapes of live Mr Sirius, which unfortunately are long missing... but there were live covers of Blue Wind, Lady Madonna, Somewhere Over The Rainbow and other cool stuff. As for a bargain at a thousand bucks is another story!
It's a DVD-R so most likely a video of a concert (it's only the upper half of the cover). I think it was '87 at the Eggmann.Originally Posted by MagmaShark
Cool video of Miyatake with Pageant
Crazy that he doesn't release music anymore. 'Barren Dream' and 'Dirge' are two of my favorite albums of all time. The man is an undiscovered genius.
Seen the name Mr. Sirius mentioned in places, but I've never actually listened to them. I heard someone say it's in a similar vein to Kenso or Ain Soph (but Kenso is the only one I'm familiar with). Seems I should try to find those two at least.
^ Not much similarity to Kenso, who are much more jazzy. Mr. Sirius were a fairly pastoral symphonic Prog-Rock band, with gorgeous melodies and female vocals. One of my favorites from the Land of the Rising Sun.
^ If you're looking for parallels among Japanese Prog-Rock, a closer match would be Vermilion Sands or Magdalena, imo, though they are not duplicates of either. I don't know if that helps you or not.
Agree, Barren Dream and Dirge are excellent examples of 80s Japanese symphonic prog at its most beautiful. There is some fusion vibe akin to Kenso on some of the instrumentals, but if you're looking for the missing third band to go with Kenso and Ain Soph, you're likely to be disappointed. It is indeed a pity that Miyatake didn't produce anymore studio works on the same line and level.
I just recently got a copy of the Sirius release Crystal Voyage and that too is quite good, despite somewhat low production values and unimpressive vocals. I wonder, was "Sirius" more of a democratic band and "Mr." got added to the name when it became more of a Miyatake solo vehicle? Or was there a discussion like this:
Promoter: "Sirius? That's a funny name for a half-assed prog dweeb. What they call you back in Osaka?"
Miyatake: "They call me Mr. Sirius!"
Interesting! Kenso are my favorite Japanese band, probably in part because of their melding of symph and jazz-fusion. But I really like the good Japanese symphonic prog too, so Mr. Sirius sounds like something I would enjoy.
So, thank you! That does help.
I just want to join the chorus of admirers of Barren Dream and Dirge. Barren Dream is at the top of the heap of all the '80s Japanese Prog albums that I've heard. Seldom anywhere else have I encountered such a prefect blend of complexity and beauty. The only other album I can think of which deserves such an accolade, and for the same reasons, is Ain Soph's A Story of Mysterious Forest, though it has more of a jazzy touch.
I once read a comparison of Barren Dream to Renaissance but that only scratches the surface. To me, it's more like the pastoral serenity of Renaissance (along with a similarity in the vocal department) coupled with the adventurous songwriting of Gentle Giant. I don't mean that these songs sound like GG, but I just think that when people say the music on this album is beautiful, that only tells half the story. There's more here than simple beauty.
I find Dirge to be a little more hard-edged overall, and I think the songs are just ever so slightly less inspired. Still an amazing album, though, that evokes a different mood for me.
"I tah dah nur!" - Ike
Never heard them before, had to do a search. Thanks for turning me on to them! A revelation!
(listening to the real thing now. cool.)
Yes Mr. Sirius is really quite a mix of prog styles. There's a touch of Hackett/Ant Phillips vibe, and then super dynamic and tight bits, some slightly fusiony bits, some canterbury sounding stuff in there too. But very very beautiful at times. The second half of the 20-minute'The Nile For A While' from 'Dirge' is rapturous. And such brilliant composition. Miyatake is probably in my top 3 modern composers (along with Dave Stewart and Tony Banks)
Dirge is my preferred of the two, more varied and dynamic, but I still love the more pastoral and dreamy Barren Dream. The title song of the latter seems to take its own sweet time in developing, one of the longest fuses of any prog epic (even longer than the title track of the Dragonfly album!). I am in love with “All the Fallen People.”
Be my soldier please
Be my soldier please
Watashii people in the valley...
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
Just stumbled across this and just skimmed through it. A little tinny sounding but amazing musicianship. A little wackiness and a couple covers as well.
The Barren Dream and Dirge albums have recently seen a “blu-spec” CD reissue in Japan that is very reasonably priced. On UK eBay you can pick them up for about £10.
So what happened to Kazuhiro Miyatake and did that vocalist ever do anything else of note besides Pageant?
She did a lot of other stuff, but Hiroko Nagai normally records under the moniker Lisa Ooki now. (often misspelled as Risa Ohki or close)
https://lisaooki.exblog.jp/
I saw that blog but what did she do of note besides those 2 projects?
Just a matter of how you see it, this vocal arrangement stuff for video games is surely much more important in Japan
than Prog and better paid anyway. Otherwise she didn't do much else.
Well yea, I obviously wasn't asking about her session work for video games
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